Chromexcel Card Holder

I despise big wallets.  Early in college I had what some referred to as the George Castanza wallet.  I was 145 pounds and six feet even.  And my wallet was quite literally bigger than my posterior.  Needless to say, my wallet jutted out from my khakis like someone who overstuffed their bottom lip with Skoal.  Thus began my search for slimmer wallets. 

The prototype of my Steadfast minimalistic wallet/card holder. 

I've researched a thousand minimalistic wallets.  Some are excellent and others I simply wouldn't buy.  My main concern, and I doubt that I am alone, revolves around structure.  Plastic cards, by themselves, are flat and flimsy.  The back pocket of my jeans could be the worse placed to store them.  Every time I sit, I place dozens of pounds of pressure on the wallet with all sorts of torque occuring.  In essense, when my cards are stacked unevely, like the vertical scaffolding in the standard bi-fold, my cards crease and break along those stack points.   

I want my cards to sit flushly atop one another to provide structural integrity.  In this regards, I LOVE the design of those aluminum wallets.  In essense, I want an aluminum card holder that looks and feels like leather.   

Here the cards stack atop one another with very little overlap at the corners. 

Some designs out there use a lot of folding and riveting.  These designs are typically attractive, but they can create extra bulk.  There is simple no room for bulk here.  It holds 5 to 6 cards (which constitue nearly 98% of my card use)  and is made of 3 oz Horween Chromexcel. 

Horween Chromexcel in Butterscoth is EXACTLY the same shade as my favorite spectacles. 

I bought a half-hide of Horween Chromexcel in Butterscotch.  I pulled off a small strip and created a new TIMEX Weekender watch strap.  I said to Sam, "This stuff would be great for wallets."  The butterscotch blends with almost all types of leather (except for the really dark stuff).  The lighter shades are butterscotch, but the darker shades are a ruddy brown.  Furthermore, Chromexcel is buttery smooth with a great pull-up effect of the lighter tones and a very slight waxy finish (very slight).  

Best materials - Simple Design = Steadfast

When I made the prototype, I turned to Sam and questioned why I would mess around with a more complex design.  I used arguably one of the best leather available.  My thread is 1.0mm waxed polyester (the same that one might use in parachutes or boat sails).  It is UV resistant, weather resistant, and has a tensile strength in the hundreds.  All four corners are double saddle stitched.  And I can make the wallet in just under half an hour from start to finish.  Steadfast.  If you are interested, please let me know.  I should have some basic 5-6 card wallets on Etsy soon. 

A Bags for Maggs

Sam and I spent the weekend working on a bag for Maggie.  I custom ordered some Iowa Bison pull-up leather in saddle.  I was pleasantly surprised that this run of bison had a more pronounced pebble grain and  chcolate color with a deep burgandy undertone throughout.  It is really slick with the white cross-stitch, so Sam went crazy with stitches. 

Sam keeps saying that the big pebble look reminds her of alligator. 

Here are a few more photos. 

Maggie wanted a shoulder bag for a small, hot pink computer.   

Once the bag was finished with its straps and edge painting, Sam went about creating the blingy, custom tags for the bag.  And I embossed in the Beargrass logo with a 400 degree embossing die and a thousand pounds of pressure.  

I love how the embossing on the bag went deep enough to mimic pull up the color of the grain.   

Sam's bling components include some howlite, turquoise, citrine, and red jasper.  

Sam included a zuni bear in turquoise for Maggie!  Afterall, Maggie is a true mama bear. 

Sam's Busy Hands

Carol's Bag

Sam has been busy working on an edge-to-edge crossed face stitch.  The results have been spectacular.  There are only a handful of people in the world, relative to the amount of leather craftsmen and leather factories, who are working on these types of stitches.  The butterscotch leather was bought on a whim, but we liked it so much that we are ordering a much higher quality, Horween Chromexcel hide in butterscotch.  If you want to call dibs on a similar bag, please let us know at beargrassleather@gmail.com

I'm playing around with my ipad photo editing software.  This picture does the bag justice. 

We are also working on the construction of straps.  Now, it may seem counter-intuitive, but the straps are the hardest part of hand-made bags.  Oh yeah, and we are working on incorporating our embossing techniques.  Here is an embossed, painted, and buffed leather tag for the bag (in construction, thus the rough cut edge).  We feel that it looks part leather, part water-mark. 

Key Fobs

When one begins working with leather, there are two overwhelming aspects of the craft.  First, there are a ton of questions that people ask.  This is natural.  When I first even thought about leather work, I found it completely daunting.  The second overwhelming component is the amount of scrap leather.  Enter the key fob. 

This little utilitarian beauty is a marvel of economy.  For starters, it actually justifies the bins that I have dedicated to tiny, little scraps.  Secondly, I often have what I call "Key Fob Saturdays."  This is where I try to not get into any projects too big in the morning because big projects mean big space.   Thirdly, key fobs fit nicely into one's palm and leaves the other hand free for coffee, lots of coffee.   

Key fobs are also great gifts for anyone.  They are inexpensive, reliable, and feel great.  These red key fobs are really interesting.  I crafted them from vegetable tanned leather, hand dyed them with a deep red oil dye, applied neatsfoot oil to soften them, then four coats of an acrylic finish to weather proof them.  Then I emboss the Beargrass Leather logo just above the bottom third of the fob.  Next, I wax and burninsh the sides and back.  Finally, I apply the hardware.  

If you want a little piece of my Saturday morning, please visit our etsy shop -- BeargrassLeather and pick up a key fob.  If you mention this blog, I will throw in a free leather goodie.

Beargrass Leather Fly Fishing Bag

The original inspiration for my interest in leathework came from a vegetable tanned fly fishing satchel that Sam found online.  At $300, it was easy to identify it as out of my price range.  So I set out to build a better mousetrap.  

Made of a chap leather wih natural pull-up, my fly fishng satchels are more weather resistant than veg tan leather coated with resolene.  I've also been able to add rustc touches, like the polished antler toggle.  

As a little bit of a fly fishing minimalist, I like the idea of having only three items to pack in my civic's trunk:  hip waders, fly rod in tube, and my leather fly bag.  The bag will hold my reel, spare spool, tippets, two or three fly boxes, and license..  

It's also rugged enough to match the freestone streams in the wilderness sections of Montana's National Forests.  Fish on!

Here is the original that started it all in rustic brown!   

"Three little maids all in a row lined up - outside my kitchen door" - Bob Dylan

Here are three in rustic spruce.  The one on the left is reserved for Maggie.  The other two will be looking for caring homes. 

Welcome to Beargrass Leather

The Beargrass Leather blog is officially started.  This blog will be the sneak-peak into the workings of Beargrass Leather.  I want to show concepts, designs, and construction of what will become the finished product.  Most people show as much interest in the construction of my leather goods as they do the final products.  Think of this as the "farm" in a farm to table approach to food.